by Jack Heath
She looked him in the eye and, in a flash, all the pieces snapped together in Six’s head. Retuni Lerke disappears off the face of the earth. Armed men break in to Kyntak’s home and steal the baby. The aging drugs left behind in the Lab go missing. Then a few months later, a superhuman teenage girl surfaces.
“Nai?” he breathed. “Is that you?”
She ignored the question. “Can you fly a plane?”
Six’s brain fought the truth, and he slowly lowered the gun. “Why does Lerke want me protected?”
She pushed past him, walking towards the cockpit. “You’re not making my job any easier, Six.”
Six followed her through the door as she sat down in the pilot’s seat. Hundreds of questions bubbled in his brain, and the least important one surfaced first. “How’d you learn to fly a plane?”
Nai was tapping keys on the NavSearch. “I read the manual while I was hiding in the bathroom. I like to be prepared.”
Six almost asked her how she had learned to read, but stopped himself. Various feelings grappled inside him—relief at finding her safe, but confusion at the circumstances, sadness that he’d missed her growing up, and dawning horror that she appeared to be the kind of soldier he himself had narrowly avoided becoming.
“How did you escape from ChaoSonic after they took you from us?” he asked.
“Escape?” She shot him a withering glance. “Those soldiers rescued me, under orders from my father. I wasn’t safe with you; that event proved it. My father warned me that I have enemies out there. You weren’t even training me. If I had grown up with you, I would never have been prepared.” The NavSearch bleeped and Nai shifted the thrust levers on the control panel, banking the plane to the right. They were turning around.
“Training you?” Six demanded. “You were two months old!”
“I’m sorry, Six,” she said. She sounded sincere. “If Crexe had let our father raise you instead of setting you free, you’d be stronger and smarter. As it is, I doubt you’ll live much longer. There are too many people who want you dead.”
“Nai,” Six said, “Lerke is a madman. He’s not your protector. He’s the one you need protection from!”
“He said you’d say that,” Nai said. She straightened the levers and pushed the thrust up to full blast, sending the plane back the way it had come at more than two hundred kilometers per hour faster than it had originally been traveling. “It hurts him that you’re so misguided.”
“Listen to me,” Six said urgently. “He doesn’t see us as people. We’re like…pets to him.”
“He’s looked after me,” Nai said coldly. “Better than you could. He wants me to be strong.”
“He’s crazy!”
“He’s my father.” Anger was creeping into her voice.
“Come back to the Deck with me,” Six said. “You’ll find you have more friends than you think.”
“There’s no such thing as a friend,” Nai said. “Just people who treat you well because they want something.”
“Why do you think Kyntak and I rescued you?”
“Perhaps you thought I could be useful later,” Nai said.
The spires of the buildings piercing the fog were thinning; Six realized that they were already approaching the airfield near the warehouse. The dim glow of the sun began to paint the grey-streaked air as it rose above the distant Seawall.
“Why do you think Lerke looked after you?” Six demanded. “Is everyone in the City selfish except him?”
“He’s my father,” Nai said again. “He loves me.”
Six shivered. Lerke had brainwashed her thoroughly, and she clearly wasn’t going to be disillusioned quickly. But maybe Six could get her thinking.
“Nai,” he said. “There are people out there who will help you not because they want something, but just because they can. I know plenty of those people. I’ll be glad to introduce you. I understand if you’re not ready for that yet, but please listen to what I have to say.”
Nai pushed a lever forward, and the plane began its descent. There was no indication that she was listening. He took a deep breath and continued.
“Just because someone says they know what’s best for you doesn’t mean they do. And just because you think you can make it on your own doesn’t mean you can. And just because you’re born a soldier, and raised a soldier, that doesn’t mean you have to die as one.”
Six sat down in the copilot’s seat. “Those three things won’t always agree,” he admitted. “Sometimes you won’t be sure whether to trust someone or question them and, sometimes, it’ll be hard to tell whether it’s better to fight or walk away. But now you have enough information to make your own choices.”
There was a long silence. Nai extended the landing gear and lowered the flaps on the wings.
“That’s it,” Six said finally. “I’m not going to force you to come with me. But if you ever decide you need a friend, you’ll be welcome.”
“You couldn’t force me to do anything,” Nai said, as the wheels touched the runway.
Six sighed. “I know.” His words were lost in the roaring of the plane’s reverse thrust as it shed its velocity against the tarmac.
Nai taxied the plane back into the warehouse and applied the brakes harder than necessary. Like a flash she was out of her seat, ducking back into the cabin. Six stood up slowly and watched her pull the handle on the emergency exit. It popped open and she stepped out onto the wing. She jumped down to the floor of the warehouse, catlike, as Six climbed out behind her.
“Don’t come looking for me,” she said, walking away. “This time my orders were to protect you. Next time you might not be so lucky.”
“Hey,” he said. “Do you know why we named you Nai?”
She stopped and half turned, her dark eyes roaming the warehouse. “No,” she said.
“I’ll make you a deal,” Six said. “Call me sometime, and I’ll tell you.”
He thought he heard a scuffle behind the plane, but he couldn’t see anything. When he turned back, Nai had gone, with no evidence that she had ever been there. For a moment he even thought that perhaps he had dreamed the encounter, and she was still just a baby waiting to be found. But he didn’t know how to fly a plane, so she had to have been there, saving his life again.
He jumped down off the wing, landing on the cement with barely a sound. He heard the scuffling noise again, and turned around to see Kyntak emerging from behind one of the cars.
“Who was that?” Kyntak said. “You managed to get yourself a girlfriend while I was kidnapped and out of the picture?”
Six grimaced as he turned around. “She’s a murderer,” he said. “And she’s only eight months old. And she’s our sister.”
Kyntak stared. “That was Nai?” he demanded.
Six nodded silently.
“But what’s happened? She must be—what, fifteen? Sixteen?”
“Retuni Lerke took her, not ChaoSonic,” Six said. “I think he loaded her up with Chelsea Tridya’s aging formula—I’m not sure why, exactly. Maybe because he needed a new operative or an assassin. She seems to work for him now.”
“That’s terrible,” Kyntak said after a long pause.
“It could be worse,” Six said. “She’s alive, I guess. And who are we to decide her path?”
“We’re the good guys,” Kyntak said. “He’s a bad guy.”
“I almost left you behind,” Six said. It came out suddenly, unexpectedly. “So many times today, I thought about giving up. About running.”
“But you didn’t do it,” Kyntak said firmly. “You came through.”
“You don’t understand,” Six whispered. “When you were kidnapped, I thought about running, finding a faraway corner of the City, and hiding there. When the Spades were coming after me, I wanted to give myself up and let them put me in a cell just so I could rest. And when Vanish’s plane was taking off, I wanted to let him go so he could be someone else’s problem.” Six shut his eyes. “I’m not one of the good guys,�
� he finished. “I just do good things.”
Kyntak put a hand on his shoulder. “What’s the difference?” he asked.
Six didn’t reply—he wasn’t sure how to. His confession and Kyntak’s forgiveness had relieved the weight on his soul. His feelings of guilt were slipping away faster than he could work out how to express them.
“So Vanish got away,” Kyntak said. It didn’t sound like a question.
Six sighed. “Got into an escape pod, ejected it from the plane. He’s wounded, but he could be anywhere by now.”
“No,” Kyntak said. “He’s got no vehicle and no troops, and probably no accommodation. He needs medical treatment, right?”
Six nodded. “Gunshot wound to the thigh. But he’s got money. Almost all the Deck’s funds plus whatever he accumulated over his century of stolen life.”
“Could be a lot if his interest rate is good,” Kyntak conceded, “but we know more about him than anyone ever has before, and so does ChaoSonic. The City isn’t big enough for him to hide in anymore, not after what he’s done to us.”
“I’ll chip in to replenish the Deck’s account,” Six said. “I have at least sixty million across a few of my own—”
“Sixty million?” Kyntak gaped. “How did you get that much money?”
“My job pays well, I walk most places, I grow my own food, and I don’t buy gifts.” Six shrugged. “Look after the pennies and the dollars look after themselves. How much of this facility will ChaoSonic leave intact?”
“They’ll probably strip it bare,” Kyntak said. “But they won’t know about the tunnels underneath it, and with all the weaponry, medical supplies, clothes, electronics, and surveillance equipment down there, we should be able to make another few million, easy.”
Six stared into the grey air, watching the fog slowly acquire a crisp whiteness as the early-morning sun touched it. “It doesn’t feel right,” he said. “We’re not supposed to lose.”
“We didn’t.” They started walking out onto the tarmac, heading for the Deck extraction team. “Vanish wanted to do his brain-swap operation and we didn’t let him. We just wanted to stay alive, and we have. He lost, not us. We haven’t caught him yet, but in a way that’s just a formality.”
“He offered me a job,” Six said. “Why do they always do that?”
“Did you say, ‘No, thanks, I know you only want me for my body’?” Kyntak laughed. “I would’ve said that.”
“Did Queen find the clone?” Six asked.
“No,” Kyntak said. “The whole cell block was empty. He decided to run after all.”
“Good for him,” Six said. “I guess. I hope he’s okay.”
Six could see the Deck extraction team on the other side of the fence now. They were supposed to be hidden, but he knew their training and the likely hiding places. The QS must have lifted the lockdown. He couldn’t see her anywhere, but there were numbered Hearts agents lurking in the darkness. He could see King casually walking a dog around the perimeter.
“So we’re immortal?” Kyntak said as they walked. “The telomeres…”
“No, we can still die,” Six said. “We just don’t age.”
Kyntak grinned. “So I could be the best-looking guy in the City forever.”
Six raised an eyebrow. “You wish.”
“Oh, you think you’re competition? The dark, mysterious look isn’t as cool as you think it is.”
“Shut up,” Six said gruffly.
“I could have you demoted, Agent Six of Hearts.”
“Shut up!”
EPILOGUE
Vanish leaned against a concrete pillar in the underground parking lot. He touched his fingers to his thumb one at a time on his right hand, getting used to the feel of the new body. It was always hard, the first couple of days. Hard to use his hands properly, hard to walk gracefully. And talking was difficult enough anyway, without the added complication of having to impersonate his host’s voice.
He’d had to move quickly this time. It had been less than a week since the failed plan, and the Project Falcon kids were already drawing closer. He couldn’t shake his paranoia that they would find his old body soon. With no employees other than Niskev Pacye, he had been unable to dispose of it as well as he usually would. The former music teacher was floating facedown somewhere in the sewers underneath the City, eyes glazed and skull hollowed out.
It was risky, impersonating a woman so soon after stealing her body. But Vanish had watched video footage of her, listened to phone messages she’d left, read her e-mails, seen pictures of her friends—and tortured her to find out her darkest secrets. It had been rushed, but he was ready.
A dark silhouette appeared at the other end of the parking lot and started walking towards him. Retuni Lerke was wearing a dark grey coat with the collar turned up, a hat tilted forward on his head, and a pair of glasses Vanish knew he didn’t need.
“I don’t like meeting here,” Lerke said as he approached.
“You’ll do as I say,” Vanish replied. “You tricked me.”
“I did no such thing,” Lerke protested. “I was—”
“Save it. I gave you a month to prove the abilities of the girl, and you couldn’t make the deadline. I know she ruined my plans a few days ago, and I know she did it under your instructions. But your betrayal was also your saving grace.”
Lerke met his gaze evenly, but he was terrified. Vanish could hear the faint quivering of his breaths, see the thin film of sweat on his brow. He could smell Lerke’s fear.
He leaned in close. “I’m impressed,” he said. “I wanted Six of Hearts or Kyntak. But Six saved Kyntak and Nai saved Six. It seems she is the strongest of your creations. So I’m prepared to revisit the old deal. You deliver her to me, along with Tridya’s original formula. The one that keeps age at a standstill. Do that, and your sons live.”
Lerke nodded. He opened his mouth to speak, but seemed to think better of it. Then apparently his scientific curiosity got the better of him. “Have you ever inhabited a female host before?”
Vanish raised an eyebrow. “No,” he said. “But my surgeon said the transplant wasn’t much harder.” He grabbed Lerke’s arm at the bicep and squeezed, enough to cause pain. “You have one month,” he said. “And I am deadly serious. One month to deliver the girl to me, or I take Six’s body instead. Are we clear?”
“Yes,” Lerke grunted, his other arm paralyzed at his side.
Vanish looked at his watch. He had an appointment to keep. He released Lerke and stepped back. “Go,” he said.
Lerke turned and walked quickly into the darkness, coat billowing behind him. Vanish watched him leave, making sure that he had disappeared up the ramp and out of the parking lot before turning around himself. It could ruin everything if Lerke was caught hanging around.
Vanish didn’t like meeting here any more than Lerke did. But ironically, it was the least suspicious place for him to be.
He turned and headed for the elevator in the corner of the parking lot. His polished shoes scraped the dusty cement floor.
He reached the elevator and pushed the button. It came quickly, and was empty. No one was heading for their car at this time of day. He stepped inside and pushed the button for Floor 6.
The elevator hummed smoothly upward. Vanish watched the light on the display above the doors.
Floor 1, Floor 2, Floor 3…
The elevator stopped at the fourth floor, and three more people got in. They all nodded to Vanish, and one said “Morning” before pushing the button for his floor. Vanish nodded politely back, and looked up at the lights once again. The light representing Floor 5 blinked.
The elevator stopped at Floor 6, and Vanish stepped past the three other passengers. He held up a hand, open-palmed, by way of good-bye—he had seen his host do this in the footage he had studied. The passengers smiled as the doors slid shut.
Vanish’s shoes clicked against the linoleum. He reached the office door, opened it with a silver key, and stepped inside, shuttin
g the door behind him. He looked at his watch. Just in time.
He sat down behind the desk and switched on the computer. It requested a password, which he had hacked ahead of time. He should reprogram it so it asked for a fingerprint or DNA sample instead. They were harder to fake, and the owner’s fingerprints and DNA were his now.
The buzzer rang; someone was at the door. Vanish smiled. He knew who it would be. He pushed the button under his desk that unlocked the door.
It swung open, and Agent Six of Hearts stepped inside. Six forced a smile, showing perfect teeth. It wouldn’t be so bad if Lerke fails, Vanish thought. Those teeth would look good on me.
“Queen of Spades,” Six acknowledged with a nod. “Am I under arrest or not?”
“No,” Vanish said. “The investigation has concluded that you are innocent of all charges. You’re free to go.” He smiled. “But I’ll be watching you.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to the Griffiths/Robin family, who read drafts, sent copies of The Lab all over the world, and showed up to the launch in Jack Heath T-shirts. Where would I be without you?
Thank you to Caitlin Sherring, who lent her appearance to Earle Shuji; Alex Schinzinger, who inspired Ace; and Brendan Magee, who became the model for the villain of this book. Thanks again to my ever-supportive brother Tom Heath, for giving Agent Six his face and body. All of you, remember that only the good bits are based on you. Honest.
Thank you to my brilliant medical consults, Jessi Thomson and Hansel Goh, and my maths advisor, Tom Heath. Mistakes are mine, not theirs.
Thank you to the following people and their families for lending me a bed, a couch, or a floor while I was traveling: Meg Dale, Toby Holm, Hannah Selmes, Caitlin Sherring (again), Chantelle Suttor, Lara Willis, and Gab Worthington.
Thanks again to the incredible team at Pan Macmillan. They’ve shown a lot of faith in me, so I’ll work hard to earn it. Special thanks to Claire Craig, who encouraged me when my ideas were good and stood up to me when they weren’t, and Sue Bobbermein, who held my hand while putting me on millions of screens and radios and pages.
